Robert Ehrlich: “Mr. Speaker, this is about principle. We have talked about what the President has said, and the President's words are…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is about principle. We have talked about what the President has said, and the President's words are important. The President has said, and we have repeatedly relied on these statements, because words should have meanings, Mr. Speaker; the President said, I have made it clear we will work with Congress, the Congressional Budget Office, and we are going to do this. We are going to do the right thing. We are taking the President at his word. We are taking the President at his word that he means to make the difficult decision and that he means to be a leader and not a politician. Politics have ruled this debate for too long on both sides of the aisle. I have heard about Hershey and the spirit of bipartisanship, and we need to treat each other civil. We should not have to be reminded about that. We are adult politicians. But the fact is that we have very legitimate policy differences, and they are subjective differences. What is objective, Mr. Speaker, is that the President has said he will abide by CBO. CBO has said his budget is not in balance. We expect the President to give us a balanced budget. We want the President to give us a balanced budget. The American people deserve a balanced budget.”